Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez were forced to relinquish their Women’s Tag Team Championships on Friday Night Smackdown after WWE confirmed Morgan had suffered an injury, and was no longer about to defend. Rodriguez will have a chance to keep her hands on tag gold when she picks a partner to take on three other teams, next Monday on Raw, in a Fatal 4-Way Match: Ronda Rousey/Shayna Baszler, Chelsea Green/Sonya Deville, and Damage CTRL, represented by Bayley and IYO Sky. The pairing of Bayley and Sky is somewhat interesting considering Sky has been tagging with Dakota Kai in recent months, while Bayley has served more as a leader and solo act for the faction.
Wrestling Observer Radio is reporting that Kai is currently dealing with a torn ACL. The injury apparently happened on the May 12 episode of Smackdown in her tag team match, alongside Sky, against Morgan and Rodriguez. At one point during the match, Morgan suffered a torn shoulder, the same injury that led to her relinquishing her tag team title. Following the injury, Morgan continued on in the match, and Kai’s knee injury occurred while she was performing a move on Morgan, who she knew was hurt, and was trying to protect her.
Kai is reportedly going to undergo surgery for her torn ACL tomorrow, and no timetable for a return has been announced at this time. Traditionally, torn ACL injuries take around six to nine months to recover from following surgery, but all individuals are different and recover at different times.
This is not the first time that Kai has suffered a torn ACL. In January 2019, while with the NXT brand, Kai tore her ACL while working a house show in Green Bay, WI. She was able to get back to in-ring action in September, roughly nine months later, defeating current AEW star Tay Conti in her return match.